Is There a Learning Limit?

Throughout much of my professional career, I have run into the glazed eye look many times. The teacher in the back who is overwhelmed and is done learning. They are full. This look is certainly due to many factors. Arguably the most important of those factors is their willingness to learn. Time and time again, I hear from teachers that they cannot learn anything else, that they literally cannot absorb anything else. This may be true emotionally, but certainly not physically.

The human brain can hold on average between 10 and 100 terabytes of information! At the bare minimum, that is 1/2 of the information that is held in the Library of Congress! It would be like filling 16,166 audio CD's with music. Replacing the names in almost 1 million phone books. On single spaced paper, that would reach to Pluto and back 20 and a half times. That as just a minimum. Truthfully, not all this information needs to revolve around education, but it certainly needs to hold its place!

So if the human brain can store this immense amount of information, what is stopping educators from learning. The solution is routine. Education has established a norm that once you hit a certain landmark, you are good enough. Once your teaching practices are status quo, you are done. This thought process is what leads to the glazed eye look, and the frustration with new initiatives. Much of the solution can be in how we train our brain, and how we continue this process day in, and day out. This direction can come from the leadership, but the best teachers are the ones who break this routine on their own. If you are unsure of where you fall, or simply doubting what I am saying, I challenge you the answer the questions below: